vrijdag 25 oktober 2013

MessageToEagle.com - Giant oarfish are very rare serpent-like creatures that live more than 3,000 feet deep underwater.

Now, for the second time a huge oarfish has been discovered and some people fear this think this could be sign of a coming earthquake.

Scientists now say there could be a link between the deaths of the two oarfish.
Oarfish have on rare occasions been caught on video in their natural environment via remotely operated underwater vehicles.

An oarfish can grow to more than 50 feet. It is believed that this giant fish is responsible for myths and legends of sea serpents throughout history.

It is the longest known bone fish and sightings are very rare mainly because the fish lives in deep-water.

This is why the two latest sightings of the oarfish are somewhat puzzling.
Oarfish have a habit of coming to the surface either when sick or dying, or occasionally when they are being beached during wild storms.

According to Japanese believes the appearance of the Slender Oarfish (Regalecus russelii) - the 'Messenger from the Sea God's Palace' - in shallow coastal waters foretells impending earthquakes.

Oarfish that washed ashore in Bermuda in 1860, originally described as a sea serpent. Ellis, R. 1994. Monsters of the Sea. Robert Hale Ltd.

On Sunday, October 13, a marine science instructor snorkeling off the Southern California coast spotted the silvery carcass of the 18-foot-long, serpent-like oarfish. This rare fish was 18-foot-long with eyes the size of half dollars.

Jasmine Santana of the Catalina Island Marine Institute informs that 15 helpers were needed to drag the giant sea creature to shore.

"We've never seen a fish this big," said Mark Waddington, senior captain of the Tole Mour, CIMI's sail training ship.

"The last oarfish we saw was three feet long."

It is believed that the fish died of natural causes. Tissue samples and video footage were sent to be studied by biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Now the fish will be buried in the sand until it decomposes and then its skeleton will be reconstituted for display, Waddington said.

Just a few days later, on Friday 18 October a new sighting took place. For the second time in a week, a rare serpent-like oarfish has surfaced in Southern California.According to U-T San Diego, "Beachgoers who saw the carcass wash up on the north side of the south Oceanside jetty, off the 1200 block of North Pacific Street, called police about 5 p.m., Oceanside police Officer Mark Bussey said.

A caller told police he thought it was a whale.

Bussey and other officers responded as curious onlookers gathered around the silvery creature. At one point, about 50 to 75 people were there, Bussey said.

Police contacted SeaWorld San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A NOAA representative responded to retrieve the fish, which she measured at 13 1/2 feet long. The carcass was cut into sections and removed in coolers for later study."

This oarfish was found washed ashore near the south jetty in Oceanside around 5 p.m. Friday. An 18-foot-long oarfish was found near Catalina earlier in the week. - Photo courtesy of Mark Bussey

On Saturday, Saturday, a day after the beaching of the second oarfish there was a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in the Gulf of California.

These sightings and events have made people worried because of a Japanese legend foretells that oarfish are omens of earthquakes.

Here's what the Daily Telegraph reported in 2010 after more than 16 oarfish washed ashore in - or were caught in nets off the coast of - Japan:

According to traditional Japanese lore, the fish rise to the surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake - and there are scientific theories that bottom-dwelling fish may very well be susceptible to movements in seismic fault lines and act in uncharacteristic ways in advance of an earthquake - but experts here [in Japan] are placing more faith in their constant high-tech monitoring of the tectonic plates beneath the surface.

"In ancient times Japanese people believed that fish warned of coming earthquakes, particularly catfish," Hiroshi Tajihi, deputy director of the Kobe Earthquake Centre, told the Daily Telegraph.
"But these are just old superstitions and there is no scientific relationship between these sightings and an earthquake," he said.

There are however also scientists who are more cautious. The oarfish, deep-sea dwellers that remain largely mysterious to researchers, have been seen underwater only a handful of times. What is known comes from the few carcasses that have washed ashore.

"If all you knew about deer was road kill … how much would you actually know about deer?" said Milton Love, a research biologist at the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. "That's kind of where we are with oarfish."

Love said he believes that the deaths of the two fish are probably linked. The most likely cause was a current that carried the weak-swimming creature from still waters into a near-shore, more turbulent area, which they aren't adapted to surviving in.

Experts, however, stress that they have not pinpointed a cause of death.

"With a rare event like this, it is a bit troubling, but it's a total mystery," said Russ Vetter, who assisted in the smaller fish's dissection and directs the fisheries resource division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center.